Family • January 5, 2015

Three Christmases- Our Christmas 2014.

I know, I know it’s January and people are sick of Christmas by now.  The tree has been taken down, the new toys have all their found new places in the home, and people are thinking about Easter, at least they are if the Easter egg adverts that are already on television will have you believe.  But I wanted to take a moment to reflect on our Christmas 2014.

We ended up having three Christmases this year- one with my Mum and that side of the family, one with Mr E’s side and one with my Dad and his side.  We aren’t a large family by any means- although different members of the family popped in to say hello, but I am lucky enough to have all four of my Grandparents still around.  This, coupled with the fact that my parents are divorced, means that we end up having a lot of different celebrations which of course is most welcome.  The girls don’t actually receive a lot of gifts from any one person, but inevitably with three sets of Grandparents, an Aunt, an Uncle, two step Aunties, two sets of Great Grandparents and some very close family friends, it does end up that they receive some truly lovely gifts.

As we have Mads birthday on Christmas Eve, it does end up that the girls are pretty hyper and tired on Christmas Day, but all in all we had a lovely time with my Mum’s side of the family.  We started off the celebrations with a Christmas Eve party at my Mum and Stepdad’s house, where our close family friends came over.  This has become a annual tradition and is pretty much my favourite part due to the anticipation. We stayed at my Mum’s house for the night, before heading to my Grandparents house after a lazy Christmas morning in our PJ’s.  This year we came home to our house to sleep and had a quiet evening just myself and Mr E, which was actually quite welcome after the madness of tired, hyper children all day.  Then we headed off to Manchester early on Boxing Day morning.  We had a great, relaxing time up there, having another ‘Christmas’ on Boxing Day itself and a quiet lunch out on the 27th, before it was back home on the 28th for our third and final Christmas at my Dads.

We have really enjoyed some quality family time, after all that is exactly what it’s all about for me, and we have all thoroughly switched off which was exactly what was needed.  No one checked their emails, phones or social media for a good few days (apart from the odd instagram photo- you can’t just abandon instagram!) and Mr E didn’t go back to work until the 5th which was just lovely.  We relaxed and enjoyed each other’s company and I actually prefer the period between Christmas and New Year the most- the pace of life just slows down a little yet you are still in the throes of the holiday season.

Here is our Christmas in photos and a little video…

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Hooray he has been.  We put their main presents they have asked for from Father Christmas in their stocking, plus a couple of little bits too, which I know is a little different to others, it’s just the way my Mum always used to do it.  It does mean Father Christmas gets all the glory though- this year he bought Mads a big Buzz which she was after for absolutely ages.

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Emptying their stockings.  LL didn’t really know what was going on and was most interested in the Peppa Pig bubbles that came in hers.

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Matching Christmas PJ’s with my sister and a cringey staged photo.  Awkward.  Sorry for putting this on the internet Anna.

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I loved the girls beautiful Poppy England dresses they were wearing- here they are having a little dance while we were waiting for everyone to come outside to go to my Grandmas.

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Such a pretty light- we were so lucky with the weather over Christmas as the sun shined the whole time even though it was freezing.

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Still dancing.

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Curly, mop heads.  Their hair is so frustrating to brush as it gets so tangled but I couldn’t bear to cut it.

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When I was younger, even as young as about 12, I was always allowed one Babycham only on Christmas Day.  I wouldn’t allow my girls to drink alcohol at that age but it was different then.  My Grandpa got me some babycham to relive the good old days- I love it still!

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I love a good brussel sprout and it’s the rules that even though Mr E doesn’t like them he has to have two- my Grandma checks to make sure he has them on his plate. 😉

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Most of us don’t like Christmas pudding so my Mum always gets this amazing Malteaser cheesecake from a local deli- it’s absolutely delicious.

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Christmas tree lights.

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Boxing Day was spent at Mr E’s Mum’s with his side of the family.  I love this photo of LL and her Baa as she really does take him everywhere with her.

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All of a sudden she is just looking so grown up.

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Our third and final Christmas was back in Cambridgeshire with my Dad.

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I love this photo of my terrible twosome.

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We always take (and treasure) some photos with my Grandparents- my Grandpa is 92 and my Nana is 89.

Here is a little video of our ‘three Christmases’…

 

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